Monday night’s ASUO Programs Finance Committee meeting began with an apology by PFC Chair Persis Pohowalla for her “unprofessional behavior last week” and an agreement by PFC members to “respect what others have to say.”
Oregon Marine Student Association’s budget hearing lasted nearly an hour. OMSA included a $1,900 increase in its budget for
gym memberships.
OMSA representative Ahna VanGaest said the fees were necessary because the program is located in Charleston, Ore., and “we pay for the gym here, but we cannot get to it.”
PFC member Mason Quiroz expressed concern regarding allocating student incidental fees to an outside gym.
“How do we justify when to give money for a gym pass to students who can’t get to the gym for whatever other reasons?” Quiroz asked.
Senator Kevin Day backed Quiroz’s point.
“I don’t think any student takes full advantage of the incidental fee, and so I don’t think any money should be taken out because they are not taking full advantage of their fee,” Day said.
Controller Carie Henderson suggested OMSA make a Senate request for money for gym equipment.
PFC denied OMSA’s budget increases for gym membership fees and passed a budget of $4,485, an 8.8 percent decrease from last year.
The Pit Crew’s budget proposal underwent scrutiny from the PFC, which was concerned about the group’s job descriptions, including a stipend position of $625 for the PC president.
“For the biggest organization on campus, I think it is representational of the work involved,” PC President Eric Weckert said.
As a point of clarification, Quiroz said, “Stipends are not compensation for work; they are for expenses that incur during the work.”
Weckert appeared to be puzzled by what seems to be a popular miscommunication between the ASUO and group leaders — that stipend and work-study payroll positions are meant to serve different purposes.
In the end, the stipend was approved, and a budget of $1,506 was passed, an 18 percent decrease from last year.
The Westmoreland Tenant Council’s budget proposal suffered significant decreases due to inefficiently spending ASUO money in the past two years.
PFC withdrew the group’s stipend positions and passed a budget for WTC of $257, a striking 89 percent decrease from last year.
The Muslim Student Association’s budget was approved at $1,976, a 19 percent decrease from last year due to underspending.
Student Association for Women in Architecture proposed a budget of $600 — double last year’s budget.
Although it is a small budget, PFC members said they are reluctant to give the group that much when it has yet to spend any money from this year’s budget.
PFC passed a budget for SAWA of $321, a 7 percent increase from
last year.
Two new organizations had their budgets approved Monday night with little trouble. The Oregon Innocence Network and the Pre-Pharmacy Club’s budgets both passed at the maximum first-year budget of $300.
The Students for Choice budget was tabled until a later date because of formality issues.
“The job descriptions are not descriptive enough,” said PFC member Eden Cortez.
Before wrapping up the evening, PFC members passed a surplus fund of $15,000 to be budgeted by the Student Senate next year into
ASUO Programs funds for
unexpected expenses.

Jordan Thierry is a freelance reporter for the Daily Emerald